Meet the Investor: Brentin Hess
1: What is the name of your business? Tell us a little bit about it and you.
Business name is Credible Homebuyers. CHB is ran by myself, Brentin Hess, and my assistant, Brent Wade. I’m 26 years old with an Accounting Degree from Towson University and a MBA from Frostburg State University. Brent is 20 years old and is currently attending Towson as a Finance major. I got my real estate license when I was 19 years old and soon thereafter began investing in real estate. I now have flipped and wholesaled over 100 deals and I own 44 rental units – as well as coach people locally to flip 3 houses as 50/50 partners.
2: How did you get started and why?
When I was 19 years old and just got my real estate license, I went to my parents and asked them what I should do. They opened up a Keller Williams Realty brokerage, KW Flagship, and went from 6 to 400+ agents. They then said to consider doing what they never did which is why they still work so hard today – invest in real estate. Well, they had never done it so they didn’t know how to teach it and I had college debt, so I had to figure it out as I went. I partnered with someone who had a ton of money though not a lot of time. He put up the funds, I did most of the work. Issue was that I didn’t know what I was doing, so I made every mistake in the book. If I could go back in time, I would find someone who would show me everything to save from these mistakes.
3: What was your biggest hurdle to get over to start and how did you overcome it?
My greatest hurdle was raising private capital. At 20 years old, no track record, no understanding of funding deals, etc, I was stuck. Thanks to Bigger Pockets, my Mentors, my Coaches, and hard work, I began using other people’s money to invest. I gave high returns of 15% initially which was a sacrifice. I’ve now raised over $4 million in private capital. It can still be a struggle at times, though you begin building a deeper bench. My greatest challenge is now finding the deals at 15%+ of ARV for profit.
4: Think of one project
- What type of project? Flip, rental, house-hack, design project
o My first rentals was an 11 unit portfolio consisting of three 3 units and two row-homes. They were BRRRR deals.
- How did you acquire it? Bank-owned, wholesaler, MLS, direct-marketing, client etc
o This was actually listed as a 3 unit on the MLS. We went to see it after 0 days on market. We met the owner there by coincidence and I asked him if he had other properties that he’d consider selling. He said yes, 8 more units. Those 8 became “off market” and we got everything at a discount by buying the entire portfolio thanks to that one question.
- What type of financing? Cash, HML, conventional, government, program, investors
o Purchased it with hard money and raised $160k of private capital as my “gap funding”. We used this to renovate them all before renting them out.
- If you’re comfortable, provide numbers (acquisition, rehab costs, sold for etc)
o Acq: $423k, rehab $80k, Refi valuation $780k. Got all of our cash out.
- Biggest learning curve on this project
o I didn’t own a single rental nor have I raised more than $30k at once to this point, so I forced my confidence to hang in there while I figured things out.
It’s one of those say yes, then figure it out moments. To go from 0 to 11 rental units in one’s first deal, it took a TON of researching and mentor/coach meetings to get through it.
5: Favorite style/design/wow factor: - What is your go-to wow factor & why? Or, is it always something new?
I love doing the dual shower heads with dual valves. If you’re running new plumbing, it’s only an additional $200 or so to have a rain shower. Very nice for his/her.
- Does it add value to the property?
I believe so. $200 a pop is nothing when you’re spending $60-160k in renovations typically. I’m also a huge fan of staging. It makes such a big difference, especially with the pictures which gets people in the door.
6: Biggest piece of advice:
My greatest piece of advice is you can pay for your lessons with time and money, or you can pay someone else for their lessons, save a lot of time and money, then make your own at step 10 instead of step 1. Find someone who does what you want to do and figure something out with them. Whether you are working for them for free or paying them, it will get you to where you need to be quicker, plus you can borrow their confidence as you enter uncharted territory.
7: Book Recommendation:
Mel Robbins 5 Second Rule and Millionaire Next Door!
Learn more about Brentin at BrentinHess.com